Apollo’s mother Annelies Denecker, from Southsea, told the inquest: ‘We [Miss Denecker and Gus Badran, Apollo’s father] were not there, we got called by Gus’ mother and told what had happened.

‘They were getting ready to go swimming. Then the next thing they knew Apollo disappeared. They looked in the little kid swimming pool, and could not find him. They looked in the big pool and could not find him.

‘They were going to go to the reception and then all of a sudden they heard shouting. There were at least eight witness reports.

The first witness report was by the woman who saw him. She came down a slide and went under the water.

He tragically died four days later on May 30, 2017. (Picture: PA)

‘She thought she had seen something and came up and said to her husband ‘I think there is a little boy underneath the pool’ so he jumped in and pulled him out.

‘There happened to be a lot of English guests and nurses and they started performing CPR on him.

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‘There were no lifeguards to be seen. They finally arrived 10 minutes later and they did not quite know what to do – that is what came back from most reports.’

She added: ‘Apollo had not learnt how to swim.’

A Spanish post-mortem examination after Apollo’s death found the little boy had died of multiple organ failure by mechanical asphyxiation or drowning.

When Apollo was brought back to the UK, a second post-mortem was carried out which recorded his cause of death as severe acute global cerebral hypoxia ischaemia following out of hospital cardiac arrest meaning a lack of oxygen to his brain which then led to a heart attack.

The family have said they are planning to establish a charity to help promote safety on holiday and to prevent future deaths. (Picture: PA)

His mother Miss Denecker told the inquest: ‘He was all very excited to go on holiday. It was their first day there. He was a healthy strong boy – he was always asking if there was sugar in food then he will not have it.’

Coroner David Horsley said: ‘There is nothing in the evidence to suggest someone pushed him or held him under.

‘It may be that he has had some sort of [heart] arrhythmia that has caused him to fall unconscious and fall into the pool or he has jumped in himself.

‘The most feasible explaination is he has gone into the pool suddenly, he was not seen and as you suggest there were supposed to be lifeguards there that were not there. That is a matter for the Spanish authorities if that is a criminal act in Spain.

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‘If [lifeguards] were supposed to be there then it is tragic they were not, it could have reversed the situation.

‘Despite efforts made at the side of the pool and and at hospital, Apollo sadly died. My conclusion is Apollo died due to an accident.

‘From the evidence it is some sort of accident, though we cannot say exactly how or why it happened.

‘Nothing brings him back for you and I am so seriously sorry for your devestating loss. I do wish the outcome could have been different.’